Our global healthcare industry team continues to highlight how regions around the world have quickly adapted to providing telehealth services following the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. In Singapore, telehealth providers are mainly focused on providing remote telemedicine and/or on-demand house call services.
Health Law Scan
Legal Insights and Perspectives for the Healthcare Industry
Our labor, employment, and benefits team recently posted a LawFlash on the ruling in federal district court in New York that invalidated significant parts of a US Department of Labor rule. The ruling found that more employees are eligible for up to 12 weeks’ coronavirus (COVID-19)-related emergency paid sick leave and emergency paid FMLA leave. In light of the court’s decision, employers should consider whether they need to adjust their leave determinations in light of the court’s decision.
As reported in As Prescribed, US President Donald Trump signed four executive orders implementing policies on drug pricing on July 24. One of the orders directs the secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to condition future grants under Section 330(e) of the Public Health Service Act on Federally Qualified Health Centers establishing practices that ensure the 340B discount they receive on insulin and injectable epinephrine is passed through to low-income patients who lack insurance or have high copays or deductibles. The HHS secretary has discretion to set the standard for eligible patients.
Our immigration colleagues recently published a LawFlash on the July 29 decision by the US District Court for the Southern District of New York to grant a preliminary nationwide injunction to temporarily block the continued implementation of the public charge rule during a public health emergency such as the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Two days later, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released a new proposed fee schedule with increased filing fees, set to take effect on October 2, 2020.
Imagine you are the primary caretaker for your 94-year-old terminally ill mother who lives in your home while under hospice care during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
US President Donald Trump issued an executive order on August 3 that aims to expand telehealth access to Medicare beneficiaries beyond the coronavirus (COVID-19) public health emergency (PHE) period. The executive order focuses on rural healthcare providers in particular, noting the difficulties patients in rural areas face in obtaining accessible, high-quality healthcare services over the years. The order contains four specific directives:
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has created unforeseen and unavoidable circumstances within the healthcare industry that may provoke further crisis for hospitals, nursing homes, physicians, and other frontline healthcare providers in the form of potential liability claims for noncompliance with COVID-19 protocols or other standards. In response to the pandemic, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has expanded the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act’s immunity protection.
As previously reported, the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has prompted a number of state and local actions with guidance for taxpayers on numerous topics, such as providing tax relief through filing and payment deadline extensions.
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has brought a dramatic shift from in-person healthcare visits to telehealth services around the world, unveiling a new normal for providing healthcare services. Our global healthcare industry team authored a LawFlash to highlight how regions, including the United States, China, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates, around the world have quickly adapted to providing telehealth services as a means to prevent exposure to COVID-19 and allow for patients to get in the in-person care they need.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced that it intends to resume both prepayment and postpayment medical reviews conducted by the Medicare Administrative Contractors, Supplemental Medical Review Contractors, and Recovery Audit Contractors, including those under the Targeted Probe and Educate program, on August 3, 2020: